Highlights of 2007

Sorry that I haven't been as active on the blog recently folks and that you've had to endure the dulcid tones of my colleague for so long but with silly coursework and other things its been a little hectic these past weeks.

But any way, as 2007 draws to a close James and I decided to write a post reflecting on the events of the past year and attempting to rank the experiences.

James' Top Ten Events

1. Cloughmills Go Team- August 5th-11th


2. Snow Patrol Concert, Ward Park, Bangor- Serptember 1st


3. Dromore Go Team- August 11th-17th


4. Family Holiday, Cornwall- July 7th-18th


5. EP Weekend- October 26th-28th


6. CY Summer Conference (including the 10 mile walk from Benone to Coleraine with Andy Mo)- August 25th


7. Sommerville New Year's Party (A day late!)- January 1st/2nd


8. Senior Camp- June 30th- July 7th


9. CY Outing- June 23rd


10. CY Spring Conference (including Caravelle Road Trip)- March 17th

Ali's Top Ten Events

1. Snow Patrol at Ward Park, was immense day complete with Winston
2. My Cricket Season in general, which includes getting 24 Wickets and making debut for School Cricket 1sts in McCullough Cup Final.
3. Family Holiday to the wilds of Galway, peace and serenity for 2 Weeks plus great weather.
4. The Road Trip to the CY Spring Conference, even with 2 Americans in the car it was brilliant bant.
5. Becoming an official member of Lisburn RPC. Woo!
6. Boys Adventure Camp-Being the oldest was brilliant plus book of Daniel is exceptional
7. Getting to know Brian Wright.........enough said............
8. Deleting my Bebo...I'd like to say I have a lot more free time now but........
9. Watching India play South Africa at Stormont, brilliant players every where!
10. Beating James' Rugby Team 41-0.... Hehehehe

Well thats it folks, feel free to comment on our lists, 2007 has been a special one and hope you all have a great new year (DV).

We'll be celebrating the New Year in style as usual, i'll be attending the homeland for the New Year Bash there and James will be..........tucked up in bed......... :D

Ali

Homeward Bound

"Homeward bound,
I wish I was,
Homeward bound."

These are the words of Simon and Garfunkel in their song "Homeward Bound". The longing to return home is an emotion we all experience at some stage. The desire to be with those who care for us and to be where we feel safe. This is not however the current experience of the songwriter as he sings "Everday's an endless stream" and "each town looks the same to me". This song reminded me of the difference there is between being a Christian and a non-Christian. Life is often described as a journey, for the non-Christian it is a journey into apparant nothingness with no real meaning but for the Christian it is a journey homeward towards heaven. Whilst the non-Christian may have an earthly home which may bring temporal happiness it will not fully satisfy unlike the eternal resting place awaiting those who have placed their trust in Christ. This confidence should set us apart from non-believers around us as we have a hope and a future whilst their lives have nothing of eternal significance in them. Thomas Manton describes the "best estate" of man as "vanity" whilst "a Christian's worst is happiness".

Homeward Bound is not however a unique title. It also forms part of a title for a Disney movie entitled "Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey". If you haven't see the movie a brief plot summary can be found here. The incredible journey of Shadow (the Golden Retriever), Chance (the American Bulldog) and Sassy (the cat) involves passing through great mountain ranges to reach home. On our journey homeward as Christians we face many challenges and trials. There is one moment in which the characters climb the first mountain and believe they will see home on the other side. Instead they saw a great mountain range spanning as far as the eye could see. Often as Christians we feel like we face and endless range of trials yet unlike the animals in this movie we can rely on someone far greater than each other, Jesus Christ the Son of God, "who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy" (Jude 1:24), will be looking after us the entire Homeward Bound journey.

Modern Worship

Teddy Bear Muhammad

"A British teacher has been found guilty in Sudan of insulting religion after she allowed her primary school class to name a teddy bear Muhammad. Gillian Gibbons, 54, from Liverpool, has been sentenced to 15 days in prison and will
then be deported." BBC News (read full story here)

This recent incident in Sudan regarding teacher Gillian Gibbons (pictured above) brought back memories to many of the Danish cartoon incident which took place over a year ago. Then the issue was also the dishonouring of the prophet Muhammad. We can easily be angered by such unreasonable behaviour or perhaps as Christians we begin to wonder if we should react in a similar way to the dishonouring of our Saviour, the true prophet, priest and king the Lord Jesus Christ. Should we take to the streets baying for blood in response to Jerry Springer the Opera, the Da Vinci Code or the upcoming Golden Compass movie? After the Danish Cartoons John Piper wrote an article which I found very helpful and I felt I should post a link to it due to the current controversey over Teddy Muhammad. Piper suggests that incidents such as this show a crucial difference between Christ and Muhammad.

CLICK HERE TO READ JOHN PIPER'S ARTICLE

My Teddy Bear (I call him Momo for short)

Download Freemasonary Uncovered

Click on the link to download the public meeting Freemasonary Uncovered.
Speaker Rev.David McCullough.
Venue Dromore RP Church.
Enjoy.

Freemasonary Uncovered

Christian Celebrities

The other day I was struck by a great idea, an idea that may be the answer to the increasing secularisation and dropping church attendences. We live in the era of celebrity, infact you can't turn your television on without being bombarded by B-list celebrities dancing, cooking or just doing nothing in the name of reality television. Surely the church needs to tap into this present fashion. What the church needs is to no longer ignore such oppertunities but to be more open-minded and embrace them. What better way to get people interested in church than inviting along a christian celebrity? And surely if we were but to point out to the world how many christian celebrities there are people would want to copy them and soon we'd have a full-blown revival on our hands! Afterall who's really interested in the prescence of God when you can have the prescence of a celebrity at your church?


STOP


By this stage of the article I hope you're begining to think I've lost the plot. Sadly what i've written in the section above is seems to be the viewpoint of some christians today. And even if your church isn't on the tour of any christian celebrity at the moment doesn't mean its a problem you can ignore. Often in our evangelistic literature or even our witnessing we can try to persuade on the basis that some well-known figure, past or present, shares our faith. There is further danger in glorifying a christian megastar who openly disobeys the 4th commandment. By raising them as an example we are saying that you can opt out of obeying God's law and place a stumbling block in the way of others.

I'm not saying that famous people who are christians should hide their faith, generally they are not the ones at fault, it is other christians placing them on a pedestool. Neither am I saying that churches to which a celebrity belongs should not use tham at all. If Stuart Elliot (Northern Ireland footballer) or Linvoy Primus (Portsmouth FC) were to become a member of Dromore RPC I'm sure when we run our football Holiday Bible Club during the summer we would advertise that he would be helping coaching but to run a special meeting "Come hear [insert celeb] talk about their faith" surely is lowering Christianity to a level of a celebrity-endorsed perfume! Christians are called to use their gifts, not their image. Whilst many seem to think having a celebrity speak at a church meeting is a great idea, in reality what we need at our churches is not the prescence of Jason Robinson, Jonathan Edwards (triple jumper would usually be of preference to anything that was said by the great American preacher) or Andrew Trimble but the prescence of God in our midst. The Holy Spirit changes people's lives, not famous christians.












Celebrity Jonathan Edwards vs The Real Jonathan Edwards


Other News

Sorry this is the first post in a rather long time. Life's been rather hectic of late and I've had to juggle essays with international football (watching not playing). Posting should be more regular in the future.

Rumour has it that the report of the EP weekend written for DMFWS by moi may appear in the messenger in the near future. The more funny bits however had to be censored.

And finally, Oxo have announced plans to introduced a new cube inspired by the England football team. It's white with a red cross on it, they are calling it "The Laughing Stock".

How to be a Completely Ineffective Church Member (Part 4)

Avoid Unity At All Costs

To make sure that your descent into ineffective church membership is not a lonely affair you will need to establish an inner sanctum to your ICYS (Ineffective Covenanting Youth Society). These select groupings in the church have through the years come under several guises: The Hole Pickers or The M&Gs (Mumblers & Grumblers). One of these clubs will aid greatly in the demise of your whole congregation. The main point of these select groupings is to stir up disunity in the church.

To really hamstring the effectiveness of the witness of the church it is important to bear in mind that avoiding unity at all costs has several levels that you must become proficient in.
Let me deal firstly with the local church. This will be your training ground for a wider scale assault on unity. When someone apologises for something that they said or did tell them that it doesn’t matter. Then file it away in the deepest recesses of your hard drive, but make sure you have a desk top icon on the surface of your mind so that every time you see them or hear their name those words that they said in haste and asked forgiveness for come flashing across the screen of your mind. Grudge bearing will soon have the pulses of ineffectiveness spreading through the church faster than the Covenanter Grapevine can report Rev. Jolly has been called to First Ballygobackwards. Oh and by the way use that Grapevine to good effect. Stash your juicy comments about others in the guise of prayer points, “isn’t it too bad about…..”

You must try and devise ways of remembering people that zoom in on their bad points the way the camera does in a zit cream advertisement. Learn to see the speck in your brother’s eye even when there is a whopping great plank in your own. Alongside of this, categorising people is a useful tool. Tar all members of the one family with the same brush and make sure that someone’s faux pas doesn’t disappear with the passing of time. “He’s not reliable….do you remember the time…” are excellent thoughts to keep afloat in your mind.

Disunity will be greatly advanced when you dig your heels in on every decision of church life that clashes with your personal preference. Say loudly and widely, “Nobody ever gets a say round here,” when what you really mean is, “I don’t get my way round here.” You must grumble about every decision that the elders make and quietly leave little incendiary devices in the minds of others to detonate in the next church gathering. Never ever, ever say, “Well I am happy to follow the lead of the elders in this matter.”

Remember the simplest things can be agar plates for stimulating the bacteria of disunity: what colour to paint the church hall, the change in the time of church activities, changing the name of the church to something less off putting, who sits where.

When you have got local scale disunity well sussed and the “fellow ship” is listing, then you are ready for your first mission on a grander scale. Only go to other RP churches where you are happy with every jot and tittle of church life. Do a survey and cross out congregations from your holiday visits as you see fit. Bible versions, Psalter used and dress codes are ideal categories for your list of “to visit or not to visit.” When you have got your “hit list” completed be sure to share your ideas with others. As this mentality spreads little pockets of “Real R.P.s,” “Out on our Own R.P.s” and “Anything Goes R.P.s” will develop. By this stage the downfall is imminent and ineffectiveness has won the day.

With the local church and denomination in the bag your ineffectiveness campaign is ready for one final frontier, the Wider Christian Church. You have got to realise here that only Psalm singers are bound for the “Pearly Gates.” Anyone that might have a different opinion from you about worship, church government or baptism is to be viewed as second class and to be pitied. The last thing you want is for some non-Christian to think that you Christians love each other. Follow that approach and the next thing you will have on your hands is some new convert, and they are the hardest of all to get on the ineffectiveness bandwagon.

One final hint about unity, but you’ll have to be really clever for this. There’s a unity that you must make every effort to see developed in your church and life, namely that unity that abandons the Bible and accepts every opinion and idea as of equal validity. Embrace everyone as a Christian who says they are Christian, no matter what they think about justification by faith alone. Lambaste far and wide every Christian minister who refuses to share a platform with all religious leaders. “Narrow-minded bigot” is a good inflammatory name to use for such ministers. And if some of the ordinary members of your congregation have had a hard time for not going to some interfaith service make sure you add your tuppence worth of, “in this day and age we need to be much more broad minded.”

Remember avoid Biblical unity at all cost.

Bible Bit to Avoid Ephesians 4:1-6

Rev.David McCullough

Eastern Presbytery Weekend 2007

Carlsberg don't do Eastern Presbytery Weekends but even if they did they couldn't have beaten this one. For me the Eastern Presbytery Weekend is always one of the highlights of the year and this year was probably the best yet. The weekend ran on the traditional format, wisely not changing a winning formula, possibly a lesson for Nigel Worthington or maybe the IFA should have appointed Peter Loughridge as manager after Lawrie's departure!

Anyway leaving serious Nige-bashing safely in the hands of AWS, the speaker for the weekend was the recent RP signing of Rev.Andrew Kerr of Knockbraken RPC. Gareth Kerr (no relation) intensified the pressure on Rev.Kerr's shoulders by pointing out this was Andrew's debut at an RP young people's event but he stepped up to the plate and delivered a quality weekend's worth of talks on the topic "The Christian Anatomy". Lessons were drawn from various body parts mentioned in Scripture and reminded us of the illustrations God has given us showing his care for us and how we are to serve him. His use of powerpoint however was described as being a little too "Presbyterian" by a member of Lisburn.

Tom pondering on the talks

Friday night's games were organised by Carrick CY. The highlight of which had to be my introduction to "Whoosh ball" a game set to take the world by storm. Rumours abound that it may even become part of the London 2012 Olympics. Sleep came in the early hours of Saturday morning after much "bant" and a tube of Jaffacakes. Saturday afternoon's activities consisted of football in Kilraughts car park and some girls stuff, henceforth abbreviated to "guff", in the church hall. No pictures of football are available as no-one with a camera ventured outside into the sub-zero condtions.

Uni-hoc

More of the women's game



Volleyball- Tom in action

On Saturday evening Lorna and Ali organised the activity. A game called Conclusions in which we had to act out the final scene of a well-known movie in groups. Absolutely hilarious though the judges did have a bit of a 'mare in their scoring of the acting. How could anything have beaten Ice Age in which Rob admitted he's ginger, Champion the Wonderhorse saved the day and Gregg (our hero) Somerville had a starring role as a mammoth? Rumour has it there are video of some of the acts which I'll try to get my hands on.

The new and improved Napolen Dynamite


On Sabbath we return to Kilraughts for worship during which Ali was left very confused by DF's children's address and afterwards we enjoyed a great lunch thanks to the ladies of Kilraughts. Also saw Debbie P for the first time since the legendary Cloughmills Go Team. There were only two flaws in the whole weekend which meant it wasn't quite perfect. Firstly Tom "the Muppet" Sommerville managed to forget the clocks went back and woke our room at 7:15! What an eejit! I only realised after having got up and showered! Also I'm sorry to say that salad was offered as an option on Saturday for lunch. Don't make friends with salad!

Some extra pics

Bex, Claire and the self-confessed Ginger

Calvin taking a photo of his own shoulder

The party bus!

Aaron, Abi, Tom, Harry and Ali

Rufus and Elvis

Sunday 7:15am not 8:15 Tom!

Final Call!

Last call for the "Ministering for the Master" conference this Saturday. Don't think you are too young or too old for the conference. I'm especially looking forward to seeing what other young people are going to be there. It will reveal which RP boys only attend RP events to see girls! If you are going you need to register by contacting Rev. David McCullough.

Other News
A post on possibly the best EP weekend ever is in the pipeline. I don't want to do the weekend a disservice by rushing a post on it! If you've got any pictures of the weekend you want to donate please email them to us.

Our Deepest Fear

The following quote i'm sure many of you will realise is from the film, Coach Carter (with all the spiritual bits taken out), or even Nelson Mandella's speech in 1994, but it was actually a women called Marianne Williamson, a "spiritual activist, author, lecturer and founder of Peace Alliance.

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

There are many things we can take from this great piece of writing, its great to think about how we are in fact "powerful beyond measure" instead of usually seeing ourselves like a small and an insignificant being. Its a great point to see that who are we not too be, we are children of God and with God being our strength and portion, we are powerful, although we may not know it. It is important to realise these things in life so that "our prescense automatically liberates other" other people can see how wonderful being a child of God truly is. There may be other things that personally you can take away from this but here a just a few I found encouraging.

Also it was a busy weekend for both our congrecations, Jamesy along with 2 others came into membership at Dromore RPC, also had a baptism there, and had a meeting about becoming a congrecation, in Lisburn we celebrated our 25th Anniversary of being a church body. It was a brilliant weekend with a Praise and Testimony Night on Friday, a Dinner and Slides on Saturday and special services on the Sabbath. So its encouraging times in both our congrecations so prayer would as always be appreciated.

In closing, I would like to leave a special mention to Tania Whitaker, who was our very own Kiwi for the weekend, she is some how related to the Somervilles and was staying there, she had the usual tour of Ireland, Giants Causeway, Dublin etc. Also a tour of the Somervilles houses, where they have lived for the last 7 generations of their history...................unfortunately it only took 10 Mins as in 7 generations the have only manage to move up the road!

So all the best to Tania who is on her way back to N.Z after a tour to America, Paris then she's heading to London, then spending a day on a plane to get home!

Myself and Tania

Freemasonry and the RTC

This post is not inventing some scandal linking Freemasonry and the Reformed Theological College but rather is about two events in the near future. I suppose I could have entitled it "Dates for your Diary" but that would have less imaginative than a certain Irish international rugby coach.


"Freemasonry Uncovered"


A meeting uncovering the truth about Freemasonary.

Dromore Reformed Presbyterian Church

Friday 19th October 7.30pm

A latin saying of the Freemasons is "Aude Vide Tace". This means "Hear, see and be silent". As a church we want people to hear and see Freemasonry for what it really is and we don't want to be silent on it.

"Ministering for the Master"

The church needs more ministers, if people are to be pastored, new
congregations established and the lost reached with the gospel.

But what is the work of the ministry?

How can you know if God is calling you to it?

This conference will be answering these questions.

Date: Saturday 3rd November Time: 10.00 am - 3.00 pm

Content: Seminars, Interviews, Discussion

Registrar: Rev David McCullough (Tel 028 92690155)

Registration Fee: £5 - payable at event contributes towards lunch, book and information leaflet on RTC

Please register soon if you plan to go

This conference is not some sort of College open day nor if you go will you be forced to sign up for the next intake of students! Neither is it restricted to any age range. This is a conference which all men young and old (Moses wasn't called till he was 80!) should attend as we have a duty to consider how God wants us to serve him and how to help and understand our ministers better.

How To Be A Completely Ineffective Church Member (Part 3)

Only Take

"Take Away Church” is all the rage these days, in fact there is one on every street corner. It is the new way of doing church in this “get what you can and can what you get” age. Adopting this selfish, self-centred mindset will provide you with the ideal slippery snake for scooting down to ineffective church membership.

You must think of church life as a local takeaway laid on entirely to satisfy your every need. Don’t for one moment imagine that your local church is for the glory of God and the sphere where you are to utilise your Christ given gifts in the service of others. Try and see your local church with its busy programmes as a hot food outlet, which you can visit when you feel a little spiritually peckish and scan the menu for that essential ingredient that you enjoy and avoid everything else.
In “Take Away Church” you will notice that there are some people busy behind the counter. Don’t for one minute feel pangs of guilt when you see their sweat beaded brows, and at all costs don’t offer to lend a hand. After all they have nothing else to do and you are so busy. You simply couldn’t fit in any more to your busy schedule: Monday evening it’s badminton club, Tuesdays you have your weekly dose of soaps, Wednesday (MW night) you have those extra swimming lessons, Thursday you help with the Youth Work in 1st Whatever, Friday is your evening for walking the dog, Saturday you play golf in the morning and do the shopping in the afternoon, Sunday is your only morning for a lie in, a good snooze in the afternoon and visit the relatives in the evening. You couldn’t possibly fit in any time to help out at the Take Away.
Don’t take in too much by way of showing up when the church family meets for worship. You might stumble on to a series of body life sermons where the minister will be laying it on thick about the need for everyone to do their bit. Once a fortnight should be enough to keep spiritual starvation at bay. Not in your wildest dreams should you consider becoming a twicer (am & pm worshipper). This would be ineffectiveness suicide.
In this era of “Take Away Church” you need to develop skills in sermon tasting. Make sure that you do the rounds of all the Harvest Services, BB Enrolment Services, Children’s Day Services, Christmas Carol Services, My Gran’s Got a New Coat Services just to see what’s on the menu in the other Takeaways.
Don’t for one moment imagine that anyone in your Takeaway will miss you, after all you are not even a regular customer now that your family has four months out each year at your new holiday home.
Of course there will be times when you will need just a little more than the odd sound bite of Biblical matter. For those dark days remember that you are entitled to the undivided attention of the minister, elders and the church members, after all you are a paying member. Anyway, that is what the minister gets paid for and Mrs Jones has nothing better to do than call to see your family with a casserole each week. DO NOT feel guilty and avoid any desires to pledge yourself to helping others.
When you make your twice-monthly trip to church, remember, in and out as quick as you can. Arrive late and don’t linger at the close of the service or you will begin to see that there are others with needs and that you might have the where withal to help them. It is best to join in the stampede for the door and see if can you make it first off the grid from the car park three weeks in a row.
Remember church exists for YOU!Bible Bits to keep clear of: Hebrews 10:19-25, I Corinthians 12:7

David McCullough

C.Y in the Mournes

Sorry theres been a delay in this post, cable for the digital camera went missing so that had to be found. Our first lesson this CY term was of perserverance as headed up the Mournes one class Saturday to have a little dander.

Me and our "easy walk"

Now being a Rugby man, I had to leg it up Bloody Bridge an hour and a half after our group had started to try and catch up (some weren't up to the challenge!) in the 35 Minutes it took me to catch up (beat last years record!) I embarassed myself by thinking I saw our group, me sprinting towards them then realising it wasn't our group and swiftly changing direction again. When I did catch up we got to the call, had lunch then headed up and down Donard in time for a Mauds and then parted our ways.

Though on the way, it got me thinking, some of our lives could maybe be described as this. An uphill struggle, until we find God and then looking down at the beauty of life and how we can rejoice in the things we have. Then half way on the journey down we realise it ain't so easy either with our feet getting sorer and sorer and things not going the way we like it. Its at these points I think we've got to really got to stop and trust in the Lord to get us the rest of the way down untill we reach Heaven. There will always be our connection with sin and we will continually disappoint our Heavenly Father but the trust we have in Him to see us through will only develop through this.

Psalm 22 vs. 8 "He trusts in the Lord, let him deliver him; let him rescue him, for he delights in him!"

The Gang

Me and Tom being the tallest people in N.I at that time

Moutains of Mourne

Other DMFWS news, our first meeting of CY took place last Friday night and we opened with Psalm 92 and Dad introduced it, and after a time of prayer we had a time of psalm singing, 1 psalm in James announces that he would like to sing Psalm 92........the unknowing look on his face was priceless as we stared at him with bemusement! Ah it was quality.

Also with severe competition from Jeremiah, Gregg still remains our Hero.

Alastair

"Great Changes"

For my A-level English I am currently reading Charles Dicken's Great Expectations. I'm not very far into it yet but I'm enjoying it so far. Don't spoil it for me and tell me how it ends! At the end of chapter nine the chief protagonist (that's A-level English speak for main character!) and narrator Pip makes a very interesting comment whilst reflecting on the experiences of one day. He says:

"That was a memorable day to me, for it made great changes in me. But it is the
same with any life. Imagine one selected day struck out of it, and think how
different its course would have been. Pause you who read this, and think for a
moment of the long chain of iron or gold, of thorns or flowers, that would never
have bound you but for the formation of the first link on one memorable day."

As Christians we don't believe in fate but there is a lesson to be drawn from these words. We all know that one day or event can make "huge changes". Whether it is on the world-scale, such as 9/11, or in an individual's life. If you have placed your trust in Christ you will be able to see the impact that it has made on your actions, priorities and life. We aren't however to keep the good news of the gospel to ourselves Jesus has told us to "Go and make disciples"Matt29:18 (ESV). If we share the gospel Christ may choose to use us to tell someone the message that will make "great changes" in their life and place it on a different course, heaven-bound instead of hell-bound.

Picture of the copy of the novel I own. Notice the £2 proudly stamped on front cover, no expense spared by the English Department!

Lisburn GO Week

Lisburn held their 3rd Go Week this Summer and it was once again a huge sucess.
Our day was pretty much 10 to half 9 for 5 Days solid so I was wrecked after the end.
Over the course of the 5 Days we had different ministries. It went as follows.

• 10am - Bible Study - Led by one of the Elders each day, studying the book of Acts with a book called Acts - A Church on the Move.


• 11-11.30am-Coffee Break, a vital part of the day for most, a few cups and biscuits plus a game of pool with Tom to get the body ready for the days work!



• 11.30-1pm-Literature Distribution, gave out 5000 Leaflets over the course on the topic of 'What does the Church Mean to You', 5 Church Members gave their fews plus pictures, unfortunately we had to post Tom's Ugly Mug through 5000 Homes in Lisburn.


• 1-2.15pm-Lunch Time, I presume you know what happens during this time.


• 2.30-3.30pm-5 Day Club, held on a Local Estate Green, biggest encouragement of the week was seen the group of Boys who disrupted the Club hugely (they became very interested in our Lisburn RPC sign and a few cones) on Monday sitting and listening to the Story on Friday. Had about 15 Children come along which was great.


• 2.30-3.30pm- Caring Ministry-Church Members would go out and visit a Housebound Member of the Congrecation and a short time of Worship was held with them, this was great way to encourage the senoir members of Lisburn from these vistits. One of our members, Mrs.Henry celebrated her 85th Birthday on the visit so a cake and card was presented to her.
  
• 4.30pm-Each day we watched a video on the Reformation, most days accompanied with Mauds Ice Cream! We followed the work of men such as John Huss, John Calvin, John Wycliffe and William Tynedale.


• 7-8pm-After Tea and some relaxment we had our Holiday Bible Club at the Church, focusing on the same theme as the 5 Day Club on Joseph, can steadily growing Numbers at it about 20 most nights, this was an enjoyable time with the kids enjoying themselves and behaving well too.


• At the same time Door to Door went on with people who had arrived after work, our leaflets were the main started for conversations and a few encouraging discussions were had.


• 8-8.30pm- Review and Worship, had a short time of devotion led by men from the church and then a comical powerpoint presentation of photos from the days work.

Other Highlights of the week

• I was introduced to the game which was Sardines, its class!
  
• On Wednesday I was out of action as at Pre Season for Rugby had abit of a freak accident and was tackled and my head hit the post (I did not run into it so dont listen to any rumours spreading from Newtownards.) So there was sympathy galore from the Ladies of the congrecation which was all gladly accepted!


• Our BBQ was held on Friday night which parents of the HBC Kids were invited to and they basically all turned up which was absolutely amazing, never seen so many kids in the church before. Had a great time of fellowship with them. After Uncle Rob had Worship we watched Amazing Grace and was a fitting way to end off the week.
  
• Tom was added to my mortal enemy list as he joined some rubbish school in Lisburn!
  
• Uncle Robert finished the GO Week with our Guest Service based on Acts 8 - Persecutor to Persuader, see the http://www.rpc.org/ for the audio sermon! Had a few guests and friends were invited along.
• Other big news, Lisburn started using the ESV Edition of the Bible last Sabbath which is all exciting stuff.

Tom

Jeff beating us at James Bond

Action from the Club

Sister Dearest

Thanks for all your prayers over the course of our Week in was brilliant and hopefully we will see some fruit for our labour over the next few months.

Ali

Snow Patrol

Another quest appearance here from Andy about an amazing day in Bangor!!


So James asked me to post something about Snow Patrol...


Ward Park


Catherine, Esther, Gillian, Rachel, Erin, Mary-Lynn, Beka and Heather


Beka, Heather, myself, Sam, James and David






We Are Scientists


ASH


Snow Patrol


Nathan from SP


Snow Patrol's first song, Hands Open




Run. Enough said.



All in all, it was a great day. Snow Patrol were immense, ASH and We Are Scientists were worthy support. More pictures here.

Andy Morrison

ps, thanks to Beka for some of the pictures, even though she doesn't know I took them
pps, the right hand side of all the pictures doesn't seem to be showing :( see the full pictures at the link above

Glory Days Are Still Ahead

The summer has sadly come to an end. As you reflect over the past few months maybe you wonder if there'll ever be another summer quite like it or perhaps the endless rain left you disappointed and you felt this summer was a bit of an anti-climax. This sense of reminiscing times past appears in of the much music that we listen to whether it is the Lost Prophets' song "Last Summer", Bryan Adam's "Summer of '69" in which the line "Those were the best days of my life" is repeated or a personal favourite Bruce Springsteen's Glory Days in which he expresses his view that:

"Glory days, well they'll pass you by
Glory days, in the wink of a young girl's eye"

Whilst these songs can be great for remember good times, for example "Last Summer" always reminds me of Termonfeckin 2006 as it was the last track on the CD our tent produced for the week, I can often find myself despondant and wishing to be back in the same place and time with friends or family. The thing is, as Christian we don't need to be dreaming of the past because we have an amazing future ahead, in this life and in the life to come. God has a plan for our lives:

"For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil to give you a future and a hope." Jeremiah 29:11 (ESV)

Our usefulness to God will not end at 30,40,50,65,100. Every minute we spend on this Earth God has a purpose for. Every day that passes he is changing us through his Holy Spirit. The best days are yet ahead. This is true ultamitely in heaven where we will glorify and enjoy God perfectly.

If you're a non-Christian reading this you do not have this assurance. You may never have it this good again. In fact you probably won't. If your life is based around pleasure rather than God you are on a downhill slope towards destruction rather than a climb upwards. Turn to him who can save you from hell now. Repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Then "Glory Days" will never "pass you by" and you'll spend true glory days with your Saviour for all eternity.

Romania Go Relief Team 2007

I hope this doesn't sound like something written for the Messenger..

The 2007 Team consisted of 62 members, around 40 of whom flew out on Wednesday, with the rest joining on Friday. I went with the majority on the Wednesday morning, although I actually left home at about 11.45pm on Tuesday. The flights and all that went smoothly and we arrived at Casa Shalom at about 5.30pm local time after a journey on our lovely bus, Bessy. Now I’ve been on some ropey buses in my time, but this just took the biscuit.

We then had an interesting meal which nobody was really sure how to eat, or what went with what. I should have taken a picture of it. Among other things it consisted of honey, gherkins, corn bread, strong cheesy stuff and sugar. Still, it was nicer than the rubber breakfast we had on one of the flights.

We were staying in what I must say was very nice accommodation. The building has been just finished in time for our arrival, so I think we were the first people to sleep in the rooms. So after little no sleep for a very long time we went to our rooms and hit the sack.

Thursday was a pretty normal day, up at 7.15 for Team Devotions, Breakfast at 8.00 and starting work at 8.45. I spent the morning scraping a tin roof with Michael (as in Michael was also scraping, not that I was using Michael to scrape the roof) which wasn’t all that bad. After lunch we were painting the underside of a canopy and although it was quite tedious some of the kids were running about so it was a chance to get acquainted with them. Of all the children, Maria was probably the most active and talkative, so it was very sad to hear that she had broken her leg that night, and as a result spent the week in plaster. Still, she was always smiling and was generally great.

On Friday there was a bit of a rush to finish off the building that we were staying in, as the remainder of the team were arriving that night, and their rooms not quite ready, so a lot of us went inside to help finish off the rooms. Painting inside is not half as much fun as outside as I soon learned. That evening, the children sung for us, both in Romanian and English. It was mostly hymns, but like whatever, it was a great evening, you could see how much the children were enjoying it, especially Vali, and that they actually understood the words they were singing.

At the end, Marius got up and played us a tune on his Mandolin, which was class. Another day over.

Saturday was much the same, but in the evening we went into Bucharest for the first time and a walk round Cismigiu Gardens.

Despite being around 10pm it was probably hotter than it would be here at midday, which was a bit of a strange sensation. In the park, Calvin, Matt, Sarah and Marius rented out boats to go on the lake. That was quite fun, especially jumping up and scaring all the people in the posh looking hotel. Yeah.

After that we had time for quick, but much needed dash to McD’s. And that was lovely.

Sabbath was a slow relaxing day, as it should be. In the morning John Hawthorne took worship, and it was translated into Romanian by Nelu (who is quite simply the man). Lunch was a bit dodgy, so I had a sleep in the afternoon. Evening worship wasn’t the usual, various people spoke about their experiences and stuff including a few of the older children, and that was really encouraging.

The rest of the week consisted mostly of painting, messing about and a couple of bonfires. On Monday evening we had worship around the bonfire. Ian took it because Captain Ronnie who was supposed to be taking it was out shopping (seriously). After that we were talking about what we could do with the bonfire. Eventually, Phil ran over and threw in a can of lynx, and you can watch the results below.

Wednesday was our free day and we were to go to the Black Sea for some big European Naval display but because of Maria being immobile and the thought of spending 7 hours on Bessy it was generally agreed to scrap that. Instead we spent the day in Bucharest. We visited the big palace that Ceauşescu was building for himself.

Easily the biggest thing I’ve ever seen, it was a very impressive building. We had a tour of it, but it was a pretty rubbish tour to be honest, all we got told about were the floors, the ceilings and carpets. I don’t have any photos from inside as you had to pay about £6 for that privilege.

After that some people returned to Casa Shalom to continue with the ground work while the rest of us ventured into the centre of Bucharest. Sadly the places where we were were very Westernised. The shops and prices were much the same as here, which I found a bit surprising. Still it was fun..

After that we went down to a lake, hired out boats and a had a waterfight. It was class.

Thursday was results day for the A/AS-level people so that was the main talk of the morning. Yeah..we all got on alright. Later that day Calvin decided to paint me. Well it wasn't quite that simple, but that was the end result.

On Friday evening all of the children were given gift boxes, and 4 new mountain bikes we given to the home. After that, all of us were given a small present. After sitting in the same seats for almost 4 hours we went outside for another bonfire.

And with that done, we stayed about talking with the kids for a while, and then slowly drifted off to bed, although there was not a great deal of working going on.

On Saturday morning there was a still a bit of work to be done, so it was an early start at 7.30am. The rest of the day was spent taking photos, hugging and saying bye. It was quite sad because chances are we're not going to ever see any of these people ever, in this life anyway.



Overall, I would say that this was easily one of the best weeks of my life, I learnt a lot from the children. For example when Becky asked for someone to come up to the front and pray about something, there was always 5 or 6 children crowding round her. I think the project that was chosen at Casa Shalom was very good in that you were able to talk and interact with the people who were benefitting from what you were doing all the time, and you could see that they were really appreciating what you were doing.

Definetely a case of getting far more out of it than you could ever put in. I've left out a lot things that went on during the 10 days, but it would be impossible to cover everything that went on. To understand the full scale of what went on, you really had to be there.

I'll end with a few prayer points that I took from the week.

• The little girl, Maria, who has a broken leg at the moment
• This week the children who have someone to go home to went home, pray that as they leave Casa Shalom they will be kept safe
• The older children, especially Marius, as they leave the home and go out into the world
• Becky, who is the president of the home, as she carries out her work and teaches the children, that she would be kept healthy and strong

I'm sure there are lots more, but that will do for now.

Click here for lots more photos..

The End

Andy Morrison